My wife and I unreservedly recommend Owen Strawbridge as a highly professional, well organised, experienced, exceptionally skilled builder / project manager plus a thoroughly nice, solid, honest person. On the strength of three good references, we engaged Owen to renovate and extend a newly bought 1910 Mount Eden villa to develop into our family home. The existing villa was rundown to the point of unliveable and had been added to haphazardly over the decades. It was in awful condition. It was a steep mountain for us to climb but we believe we made the right choice in getting Owen to guide us to the top. Owen and his team’s workmanship and attention to detail is of the highest standard. The heritage architect is very impressed with both the structure and finish of the house. Friends of ours who work in the construction industry are also very complimentary of the results. Owen put a lot of thought and attention to detail into making sure everything he did reflected the era and character of the original 1910, weatherboard house. Owen was also instrumental in designing, project managing and building the majority of the new landscaping around the house. This included a beautiful deck at the back of the extension complete with retaining walls in order to level off a lawn, a concrete driveway, garden paths and custom-made paving stones. Owen’s team of builders are highly skilled practitioners and enjoyable people to have working on your home. This good vibe makes a big difference as you end up seeing a lot of them during the process. Owen also brings with him a group of brilliant hand-picked tradies. From electricians, to plumbers, to painters, to heating specialists, to landscapers, to roofers, to gib hangers and stoppers, to tilers, to joiners all of the contractors were very pleasant and helpful to deal with and many added value by coming up with great suggestions and an enthusiasm that made things fun. Owen coordinated this labyrinth of priorities with efficiency and an obvious sense of experience. Owen is excellent with client relationships. He guides you through the process with care, is fine about answering numerous dumb layperson’s questions, readily imparts great ideas and advice, is pretty no nonsense about giving his own opinion but can live with it if you don’t follow it and can patiently cope with clients changing their mind or dithering on decisions. In terms of cost, Owen’s initial estimate, at the beginning of the process, was more competitive than other builders we got to price up the job. He clearly communicated at the beginning that we were not working on a fixed price basis and that week by week he would keep us updated as to where we were at in terms of spend. We all agreed on this. We were very appreciative of Owen’s upfront honesty and frank discussions concerning the battle between our budget versus our ambition. His use of a clearly itemised invoicing application makes following the trail of the money quick and easy. We feel satisfied that the final cost of his work is just as competitive, comparatively, to his first estimate when taking all of the hurdles we faced into account. More importantly his communication around this was regular and clear. Now our young family is living in a beautifully renovated and extended villa. We’re over the moon with it. Cheers to Owen and his team for making our dream an exceptionally executed reality. It has exceeded our expectations.
Brendan Withy and Jasmin Gibson BalmoralIn time and on budget. The Strawbridge build team did our renovation as if it was their own. Loved their work and love our house. Thanks Owen and co.
Lou Kivell Lee WestmereOwen has done multiple residential projects for me. He has a great eye for detail. He delivers work to the highest standard but still works at an impressive pace. Strawbridge Build are the first people I call for any job big or small.
Ben Young New Lynn